Agritech VC firm Omnivore sets up new $130 million fund

New Delhi: Omnivore, an agritech venture capital firm, said it is setting up a new $130 million (Rs 1000 crore) fund to be invested in early stage technology driven start-ups focussing on agriculture, food, climate change and rural development.

This is the third fund by the investor and is expected to close the new fund by September 2022. With this fund the investment firm expects to fund 25-30 new start-ups in the next four years. The venture capital firm generally makes investments in seed rounds, pre-series A, and series A rounds with follow-on capital for future growth.

“This fund will have a sharper focus on catalysing climate action in agriculture, backing start-ups addressing both climate mitigation like reducing India’s GHG emissions and climate adaptation and resilience like securing a future for India’s farmers,” Mark Kahn, managing partner of Omnivore said.

Along these lines, earlier this year, Omnivore launched a programme named the OmniX Bio initiative to provide additional support to agri-food life science startups, initially targeting the fields of agricultural biotechnology, novel farming systems, bioenergy and biomaterials, as well as innovative foods, including alternative protein.

With the new fund, Omnivore aims to deepen the reach and impact of OmniX Bio, and help reboot the agri-food life sciences ecosystem in India.

“Through Omnivore’s investments, we have touched the lives of almost 7 million smallholder farmers, improving their profitability and resilience, while creating value for our investors,” Kahn added.

Omnivore currently manages Rs 936 crore across two funds, the most recent having closed in April 2019. Some of Omnivore’s leading portfolio companies include DeHaat, Arya, Reshamandi, Stellapps, AgNext, Bijak, Ecozen, AGRIM, Eruvaka, Pixxel, and Animall.

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